Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

They are like Batman and Robin going around the past few days.

Will the Minister elaborate further? I am sure a lot of preparation went into the decision to put this agency on such a footing. Various powers associated with it would have been agreed by Government for implementation as soon as is practically possible. The Minister said it may have powers in addition to those local authorities have for CPOs. There are a lot of problems associated with the CPO powers of local authorities because they do not have the funding available to them to force issues.

What is the timeframe for the roll-out of the agency? What pilot projects are in the offing? Surely some have been identified. What staffing levels will it have? Will the Minister be reviewing the incentives and penalties for agencies to use? They are a number of simple questions based on the huge preparation by the Minister and his Department to put this in place. Rather than just announce it and tell us what it could potentially do, will the Minister give us some specific details on what it will do to help to alleviate the figures we have seen today?

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